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How we're run

Governance

How we're run

Our Trustees are a group of volunteers who hold the financial and legal responsibility for everything the Trust does.

Our Trustees bring a wide range of knowledge, expertise and experience to the charity and are responsible for approving our strategic plans, annual budget and Annual Report & Accounts.

Trustees are appointed from our membership base at the Annual General Meeting of the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust each September.

Our Trustees

Our Trustees are all volunteers, elected at our Annual General Meeting, who oversee the strategic direction of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust. They meet on a bi-monthly basis to discuss any issues arising and to ensure the finances are managed properly. The RWT Director attends these meetings and the staff are often consulted.

Chris Ledbury (Chair)

Chris was on the Senior Management Team of the Brecon Beacons National Park for many years before leaving to set up his own countryside management consultancy.

In 2005 he became the Consultancy Manager for Radnorshire Wildlife Services, retiring in 2012. Chris became the Vice-Chair of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust in 2014 and has been Chair since 2016.

Chris is the Radnorshire (VC43) butterfly recorder and a member of the Powys Local Access Forum.

Bill Stow (Vice-Chair)

Bill retired as a Senior Civil Servant at the end of 2011. He was on the Management Board of Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) for 9 years and before that he was the UK's Deputy Ambassador to the EU.

Bill was Chair of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust from 2011 to 2015 and has been Vice-Chair since 2016.

Bill completed walking the 870 miles of the Wales Coast Path in June 2019. It took him 8 years in all seasons and weathers!

Edmund Hayward (Hon. Secretary)

Edmund is Bursar to a monastery, administering that charity’s financial, property and commercial affairs. He has qualifications in tax and accountancy and previously was a self-employed taxation and business adviser, primarily doing sub-contract work for accountants and solicitors.

Edmund has been Honorary Secretary of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust since 1991.

Heather Price (Treasurer)

Heralding from a family of Suffolk / Essex market gardeners, Heather read Mathematics at Bristol University, going on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant in 1977.

Most of Heather’s accounting experience and working life has been with charities and voluntary organisations, but she also taught at Coleg Powys and worked part-time for Powys County Council to help with the introduction of Local Management of Schools.

Heather’s strong faith and involvement in local church and Diocesan work, culminated in her being appointed as Diocesan Secretary for the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon for the last 14 years of her working life, before retiring in 2013.

Heather has been Treasurer of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust since 2014.

Helen Barnes

Born and brought up in Radnorshire, on a farm very close to Tylcau Hill (Floss Brand) Nature Reserve, Helen has always worked in and around farming and the environment.

Prior to becoming self-employed in 2018, Helen worked as a Farm Conservation Adviser and Deputy Operational Director for FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) Cymru for more than 10 years, providing independent advice to farmers and land managers.

Helen is now more involved with farmer groups working on Sustainable Management Schemes, European Innovation Partnership projects and doing soil sampling and nutrient management planning.

Helen describes herself as a bit of a generalist rather than specialising in one area when it comes to nature conservation. Her particular interests include land management through grazing; the wonderful things soils can do for us; and improving bird, plant and invertebrate identification skills.

Gafyn Blakeway

Gafyn is a rural practice chartered surveyor and land agent.

Jenny Chryss

Jenny qualified as a journalist and worked for six years on local papers and independant local radio in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, before realising her dream of working for the BBC, becoming a Parliamentary Journalist in 1990.

Over the next 11 years she undertook various correspondent roles throughout the Corporation, including for regional TV at Midlands Today, and on network Radio for Five Live and Radio 4. In 2001 she was offered a three-month attachment as a Senior Producer on the prestigious investigative series on Radio 4, “File on 4.” The three months stretched to 15 years, and she made her final programme in 2016.

Now, with a much better work/life balance, she divides her time between doing contract research work from home and enjoying her hobbies, which include horse riding, dog walking and nature watching.

She lives at Llanfihangel Brynpabuan near Builth Wells with her partner and two dogs, adjacent to the River Wye. She is learning fast about the life of the river and its inhabitants, and the threats they face. Through helping her partner Robert with his woodland, she is also learning a lot about trees and land management, although she acknowledges that she still has a lot to learn.

Jenny Fox

Jenny worked for 36 years as a civil servant in government working mainly in policy work. She is used to managing change and all organisations face change and so she is well placed to advise.

As a keen photographer Jenny loves taking landscapes, not only of the hills but also of big skies and different cloud formations. Her interest in geology make rock formations also an interesting subject.

Vanessa Garwood

Awaiting

Pam Knight

Pam has spent all her career in nature conservation both as employee and volunteer. Having gained a joint degree in Botany & Zoology at Nottingham University she worked first for the RSPB, then at Rye Harbour Local Nature Reserve in East Sussex and then as Conservation Officer for the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

In 1986 husband Richard became Warden of RSPB Carngafallt Reserve and they settled in Llanwrthwl, raised their two daughters, bought and renovated an old farmhouse and created a nature reserve from their 10 acre land-holding. In 1995 they established “Kitewatchers Wildlife Breaks,” a business running wildlife holidays in the UK and letting out their self-catering holiday cottage.

Pam has also worked for Rhayader community organisations CARAD and Rhayader 2000 and she helps Richard in the running of Rhayader by Nature. Throughout the past 35 years Pam has also developed techniques of sculpture to produce an ever widening range of wildlife models for both private commissions and for use in educational displays at reserve visitor centres.